Exploring Student Perceptions of Their Readiness for Project Work: Utilizing Social Cognitive Career Theory

Abstract

A changing labor market is leading to an increased prevalence in project work. In this study, we explore student perceptions of project work. We find that these emerging adults prefer leadership positions, are concerned with social values, and view project work as essential preparation for the workplace. Utilizing a social cognitive career theory lens, we find that the goals, interests, and self-efficacy beliefs of emerging adults align with the needs of project management, but there is a lack of technical knowledge on project processes. Framing the question from the viewpoint of students who will be entering the workforce at the end of their programs of study, we see that students embrace the concepts inherent in project work. The implication for human resource managers is that emerging adults believe that they can succeed in project work, but technical skills are needed to help them succeed in formal project management roles. We provide recommendations, discuss limitations, and suggest future research directions.

Cross-Cultural Differences in Adopting Social Cognitive Career Theory at Student Employability in PLS-SEM: The Mediating Roles of Self-Efficacy and Deep Approach to Learning

“…The SCCT is the initial foundation in this study to evaluate the effective teacher knowledge transfer toward students' competence enhancement (Lent et al, 2011 ; Chang and Edwards, 2015 ; Jemini-Gashi et al, 2019 ; Liguori et al, 2019 ). The SCCT is an empirically validated model that has been widely accepted (Brown et al, 2011 ; Duffy et al, 2014 ; Burga et al, 2020 ). It is a method for understanding and predicting changes in human behaviors and cognitive behaviors (Bocanegra et al, 2016 ).…”

“…According to Bandura ( 1997 ) and social cognitive theory (SCT), personal attributes, environmental influences, and intentional behaviors form a triangular relationship (Cupani et al, 2010 ), wherein individual behavior is formed via the interactions among individual thoughts and environmental emotions (Peng et al, 2018 ). Built on the foundation of SCT, social cognitive career theory (SCCT) was proposed to explain the development between influencing factors and satisfaction in higher education (Lent et al, 1994 ; Lent and Brown, 2006 ; Burga et al, 2020 ). In the SCCT, environmental and behavioral factors have indirect effects on personal and cognitive factors.…”

Effective Learning Support Towards Sustainable Student Learning and Well-Being Influenced by Global Pandemic of COVID-19: A Comparison Between Mainland China and Taiwanese Students

“…Behavior is influenced by both cognitive and environmental factors (Bandura and Wood, 1989;Van Dinther et al, 2011). Specifically, cognitive factors refer to individual's cognition, emotion and actual events, and environmental factors refer to the social and physical environments that can affect human behaviors (Cupani et al, 2010;Burga et al, 2020). According to Bandura, self-efficacy is the key structure of SCT and is believed to have a direct impact on behavior (Cupani et al, 2010;Bocanegra et al, 2016).…”

“…Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) as an initial foundation in this study for effective learning support toward sustainable student learning and well-being Influenced ( Bocanegra et al, 2016 ; Lent et al, 2017 , 2018 ). SCT is an empirically validated model that have been widely accepted ( Cupani et al, 2010 ; Burga et al, 2020 ). It is a method for understanding and predicting changes in human behaviors and cognitive behaviors.…”

“…The social cognitive theory contributes to building an appropriate research framework to discuss the relevance between learning activities, environmental influencing factors and psychological needs ( Cupani et al, 2010 ; Bocanegra et al, 2016 ; Burga et al, 2020 ). According to the social cognitive theory (SCT), Bandura (1986) hold that personal attribution, environmental influencing factors and intentional behaviors will form a triangular relationship of interaction ( Lent et al, 2017 ; Lent et al, 2018 ).…”